Protecting Sales Time When Client Work Takes Over

Hey hey,

This week’s one is short, sharp, and important.

Because it’s about something that almost every solo business owner I work with struggles with at some point.

Common Problem: Client work is eating into your business development time

You’ve landed a few solid clients.

Things are going well. Busy, even.

But sales activity? That’s slid to the bottom of the to-do list.

You tell yourself you’ll pick it back up next week. Then next week turns into next month.

And then one of your clients pauses, and you get that familiar sinking feeling.

No pipeline.

No leads.

No clue where the next deal is coming from.

It’s frustrating. You know what you should be doing. You just never get round to doing it.

Simple Solution: Create a recurring calendar slot for sales

Block out a non-negotiable time slot in your calendar.

Daily is ideal, but a few times a week can work (as long as you stick to it).

The goal is to turn sales into a habit, not a hustle.

And the simplest way to do that is to remove as much friction as possible.

Here’s how I structure my daily sales tasks mine:

• Connect with 20 new contacts – I work from a colour-coded lead list so I know exactly where to start.

• Message new connections – I’ve got my outreach messages ready to go, so I can copy, tweak and send quickly.

• Reply to LinkedIn messages – I use a direct link that filters for unread messages only, so I don’t get lost in the inbox.

• Check open deals in CRM – I sort them by ‘closest to revenue’ and work from the top.

• Prepare for sales meetings – I use a meeting doc with pre-built prompts and research links so I can get prepped in minutes.

Each of these links is saved inside the calendar invite. That way, when the time comes, I don’t waste energy figuring out where to start.

It’s not about saving time. It’s about saving headspace.

Because the less friction there is, the more likely you are to do the work.

And the more consistently you show up for sales, the less likely you are to hit that “where’s my next client coming from?” panic.

Take Action

1. Open your calendar and block out time for business development (even if it’s just 30 mins 2/3 times a week)

2. Add links to the tools, docs, and lead lists you use into the calendar invite

3. When the time comes, sit down, open the calendar invite, and get to work

That’s it.

Simple, boring, and wildly effective.

Let me know how it works for you.

That’s it for this week’s edition of Generating Pipeline.

If your calendar's packed and your pipeline's empty, remember – a small, consistent sales habit beats a big push when it’s already too late.

Protect the time. Do the work. Future you will thank you.

Until next time!
Mark